While fishing for carp and asp in front of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, Army Maj. Rob Littman daydreamed of leaving Iraq and fishing for sharks near his home in Richmond Hill.

Littman's dream recently became a reality. Within a week of returning home from a 14-month deployment to Iraq, his second tour of duty there, Littman and a fellow soldier reeled in 11 sharks, about 30-40 inches long, during a four-hour expedition off Ossabaw Island.

"It was a great day of fishing," he said. "Exactly what I had been dreaming of while in Iraq."

The first time Littman ever caught a shark was when he was fishing "down on the Ogeechee River and Bear River, which is up from Ossabaw Sound," he said. He also fishes at St. Catherine's Sound and at nearshore reefs. He primarily uses cut squid as bait and frequently lands Atlantic sharpnose sharks.

"I don't have a big boat to go out far or anything," he said. "I was doing inshore fishing and caught sharks and it was exciting. I caught about a 3-foot shark and he was thrashing around. I caught a lot of them the same day and it got me hooked on it."

Littman said the adrenaline rush of reeling in a shark is addictive.

"The fight, bringing something into the boat, when you grab it by the tail and lift it up and there's a 3-foot shark twisting around and thrashing, teeth everywhere, it's quite a rush," he said. "It's like catching a tiger by the tail."

Littman is such a shark-catching enthusiast that he created a Web site, SharkFighter.com, to showcase photographs of his hobby "fighting the toothy monsters of the deep."

SharkFighter.com, which has been operational since January, receives approximately 160 hits per month, Littman said. He created the Web site while stationed in Iraq.

"People from all over the world have looked at it," he said. "It's pretty cool. It was something fun and different to do. I had never built a Web site before."

Littman dedicated SharkFighter.com "to those brothers in arms that will not get a chance to wet their lines anymore, having made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom in a place with plenty of beach sand but no ocean" and to "those great wives like mine that stand behind us when we are gone and don't mind us fishing when we are home."

The 44-year-old Philadelphia native intends to retire from the Army next year, his 20th year of service, and remain in Richmond Hill.

"I'm a 'Damn Yankee,' which is actually the name of my boat," he said of his 19-foot Bayliner. "I'm retiring here. I love it here. It's great. The people, the fishing, the lifestyle, it's great."

Littman and his wife, Ruth, to whom he has been married for 21 years, moved to Richmond Hill in 2003 from Charleston, S.C. He was deployed to Iraq in January 2005, returned to Richmond Hill in January 2006 and re-deployed in March 2007.

"The 3rd ID was going to Iraq and I wanted to be part of that," he said. "(Invading Iraq) is something that I felt we needed to do. I believe in it. I still believe in it. I'm glad I'm not there. I've done my time. But I believe in it. I am proud to have done my part.

"On a daily basis, you can see the improvement we're making over there. From the time I first got there in 2003 until now, it's like night and day. The people are so much better off over there now."

Fishing at Saddam's palace

For recreation, Littman and other soldiers fished a stocked pond in front of one of Hussein's palaces, Al Faw.

"It was something to beat the monotony over there, something to break up the routine," he said.

On SharkFighter.com it is common to find photographs of soldiers, dressed in full military fatigues, with a fishing rod in both hands and their weapon strapped over a shoulder.

"We always had to go around armed everywhere," Littman said. "Where we were, it wasn't immediate danger but everywhere we went we always had to have our weapons at the ready."

Littman said he was surprised to find a pond in the desert, let alone one stocked with fish.

"There's a lot of carp and asp over there," he said. "That was Saddam's pond, and it was stocked with fish. It was a sign of his wealth. While all of his people were starving to death, he stocked his pond with fish. It was very lavish, with a lot of water everywhere. Water is a commodity over there.

"Saddam was sort of a sportsman. He had that thing well-stocked. The local people catch and eat (the fish), but none of the soldiers ever would. For us, it was strictly catch and release. We didn't trust the water."